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The Commission for Promotion and Protection of Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRLRC) undermines human rights and “ behaves like an extension of the ruling African National Congress party… ‘ warns the civil rights organisation Afriforum.

Kallie Kriel, Afriforum - 19 January 2012 - The Civil rights organisation AfriForum has accused the supposedly independent “Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities” (CRL) of functioning purely as an extension of the ANC.

The ANC and its cadres deployed in the CRL Rights Commission regard the Constitution's provisions relating to minorities merely as temporary concessions that had to be made in order to gain political power. Now that the ANC has gained control of almost all power structures and constitutional institutions, these provisions are being undermined … ‘

“The Commission is consciously undermining minority communities' rights, while it should be promoting community rights in terms of its mandate as set out in section 185 of the South Africa's Constitution.”

He points out that the government's education authorities specifically target only the Afrikaans schools for their actions. "There is not one example anywhere in the country that the minister of education intervened in the language-policies of single-medium English-language secondary schools to force non-English pupils into an English-language school."

And while Afriforum and the Afrikaans parents in Fochville have sympathy for the masses of children in this country who have no access to good education, this claim is merely abused in order to undermine the Afrikaans-language educational facilities' policies. The government is constantly dragging in the racism-card despite the fact that Afrikaans-medium schools consistently accommodate Afrikaans-speaking pupils of colour as part of their policies.

“The government is creating an artificial 'need for English-language education' to promote its own anti-Afrikaans agenda', said Kriel.

Afrikaners have clearly-established Constutional rights to their own Afrikaans-medium schools:

AfriForum's criticism of the CRL Rights Commission comes after the Commission launched an attack on AfriForum's new campaign for the protection of Afrikaans-medium schools in a press release.

AfriForum launched its "Save Afrikaans schools" campaign after all three Afrikaans-medium schools in Fochville had been forced by the Gauteng Department of Basic Education to relinquish their status as Afrikaans-medium schools at the start of the 2012 school year.

Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, pointed out that ‘ the right of existence of single-medium schools is recognised in section 29 of the Constitution. "It is therefore unthinkable that an institution like the CRL Rights Commission - that was established in terms of the same Constitution - is now supporting the government's ideologically driven efforts to do away with Afrikaans-medium schools," said Kriel.

Kriel pointed out that the parties to the constitutional negotiations agreed to include provisions for the establishment of a CRL Rights Commission in the Constitution owing to the call for regulations for the protection of minority groups.

"It is becoming increasingly evident that the ANC and the cadres it deployed in the CRL Rights Commission regard the Constitution's provisions relating to minorities merely as temporary concessions that had to be made in order to gain political power. Now that the ANC has gained control of almost all power structures and constitutional institutions, these provisions are being undermined," he added.

Afriforum has to increasingly turn to the United Nations and other international platforms to protect minority rights in South Africa…

Kriel said because the ANC government is using the CRL Rights Commission, which is supposed to safeguard community rights, against minority groups like Afrikaners, AfriForum has to increasingly turn to the United Nations and other international platforms to protect minority rights in South Africa. "Cultural communities' right to culturally oriented mother-tongue schools is recognised internationally and AfriForum has already appointed an international politics expert to explore international instruments that can be used for the protection of Afrikaans schools," said Kriel.

According to Kriel, AfriForum has already set aside R50,000 to fight against the government's actions to undermine Afrikaans schools in Fochville.

AfriForum encourages the public and, in particular, parents to support the "Save Afrikaans schools" campaign and to donate R10 to the legal action by texting the word 'skool' to 38655.

The campaign was stepped up today with a full-page advertisement on page 9 of Beeld Afrikaans daily newspaper: Statement issued by Kallie Kriel, CEO: AfriForum, January 19 2012

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '